The Christmas Thief - Herz & Verbrechen: Ein festlicher Fall

The plot of 'The Christmas Thief' is a great one, however the POV narration is a bit annoying and inconsistent. This Made-For-TV movie is just as great as any other MFT film released for the holidays. I do wish this movie was given just a bit of a larger budget to work with. Reason being, some shots where set noise required voice over in post makes the sound inconsistent with the ambient volume of the movie. This movie very well could have ranked high among other B-rated movies had the budget been a little higher. The acting also felt kind of "Nick at Nite" with adolescent style acting and wide assortment of Non-Copyrighted holiday music that didn't follow a particular style or flow. Despite my many gripes about production, I very much enjoyed the movie and its twist on traditional holiday entertainment.

Michelle Borth has long dreamed of being a private investigator. A year ago she quit her job at an insurance agency to solve crimes. She has succeeded in finding a lost cat -- and been paid in cookies. She interviews with Vivica Fox for her 'tec agency, and then it's off to her typical Hallmark Channel hometown, where homeowners apparently clear the snow off their frost-covered lawns, if not their bushes. She is intrigued by a series of robberies, and distracted by her old boyfriend, Leigh Foster, and Jarrid Masse, the handsome detective investigating the crimes. She develops her own theories, and wrangles with Masse.

So it soon becomes apparent this is a Christmas-themed romantic comedy wrapped inside a mystery, or perhaps the other way around. It's a pretty good mystery, with several people dressed as Santa, particularly Tom Lally; I was surprised by who the villain was. But the characters are pretty generic. Even though that's not a terrible thing in classic mysteries, in Hallmark romcoms, my impulse is to say if you've seen one, you've seen them all.

I thought the acting was horrible and boring. Couldn't make it all the way through this mess. It started out bad and got worse from there. Watch at your won peril.

I liked the movie, but I'm leaving a review for the beautiful song that was given no credit and took me nearly an hour to find (using the lyrics. ...Even a song identifying app couldn't find it.) The song that plays during the gazebo decorating scene is called "Christmas Lights", by Luna Keller.

When I heard it, It caught my attention to the point that I spent almost the entire rest of the movie trying to find it. This song is better than just about any modern Christmas song by some big name artists. Now that I DID manage to track it down, this song will be be going into my personal collection, and become a classic, to me, at least.

(I submitted this info to be added to the soundtrack credits, But in case that doesn't happen, I left this, too.)

I'm guessing this movie is aimed at the whole family including children since it lacks any subtlety and the PI wannabe, Lana. Is anything but inconspicuous not to mention clumsy. Detective cliches abound like the one at the start with Lana trying to channel Sherlock Holmes with her "deductions" regardless how accurate or inaccurate she may have been. The cliché terminology in the dialogue is even worse than the stereotype roles. Then there is the sting operation. I don't know which is more stupid - that the thief would "toy" with them or using real valuables as bait.

Even though I don't like many of them, Halmark Movies and Mysteries' Signature Mysteries are a definite step up in quality from this movie. Besides quality, another big difference is that this is a one shot movie, so any romance must be accomplished in 84 minutes and that with two candidates for Lana's affections.

The acting is fair to poor unless you adjust for aiming at a younger audience. Likewise the dialogue.

I figured out the theif fairly early but based more on what I know about this kind of story. The clues do build up over time.

Admittedly this, like several Christmas mysteries on Ion, is not the usual Hallmark Christmas Saturday night. It's probably family safe. But that's not enough. For a kid safe movie I might give it 7 or 8 stars. I'm not a kid and no longer watch with any.